Luna was born in Mexico City to Fiona Alexander, a British costume designer, and Alejandro Luna, a Mexican set designer who is one of the most acclaimed living theatre, cinema and opera set designers in Mexico. Fiona died in a car accident when Luna was two years old. She had worked in the film industry and made sure that this was a life in which Luna would be immersed. His father also reinforced the importance of theatre and the arts in his life. When Luna was a child, his father would bring him to the sets and mentor him in different aspects of art, furthering in him a desire to become an actor and uphold the family tradition.

Diego has an initiative and a creative genius that has made him one of the leading Mexican filmmakers nationally and internationally.

He made his screen debut in the short film El Último Fin de Año (1991) and his television debut with a recurring part was in the soap opera El Abuelo y Yo, starring his best friend, Gael. His page on IMDb however list his debut in an uncredited appearance at the film Antonieta, in 1982, in which his mother worked as costume designer.

His first feature film was “Amber” (1994), an adventure title directed by Luis Estrada. In 1995 he starred, alongside Carlos Bonavides and Laura León, the soap opera “El Primero Mayor” as the troubled Quique. After a few years away from telenovelas, in 1999 he returns in “La vida en el Espejo“, where he shared credits with Gonzalo Vaga, Rebecca Jones and Ana Serradilla.

Luna debuted in American cinema with “Before Night Falls” (2000), a biopic about the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, who was incarnated by Javier Bardem. But his first big break was in the Oscar-nominated film of Alfonso Cuarón Y Tu Mamá También (2001). Along with his co-star, best friend/fellow actor Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego won Best Actor at the Vadivia Film Festival and the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival.

After the success of Y Tu Mamá También, Diego found himself in demand, with offers coming in from America as well as Mexico. He completed three more Mexican films before taking on the role of Alejandro in the Oscar-winning film Frida (2002), produced by and starring Salma Hayek.

He won rave reviews for his role as the likeable young sidekick Button in Kevin Costner’s Open Range (2003), filmed in Alberta. Diego traveled to Puerto Rico to play the starring role as Latino heartthrob Javier, a salsa dancer who sweeps an American teenager off her feet in Havana Nights: Dirty Dancing 2 (2004). Also for 2004, he appeared in Dreamworks’ The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks, and Warner Bros. Independent Pictures’ Criminal, starring John C. Reilly.

Luna has appeared in theater productions such as De Pelicula, La Tarea (based on Jame Humberto Hermosillo’s movie of the same name), Comedia Clandestina, and El Cantaro Roto, for which he accepted the 1996-1997 “Masculine Revelation Award” from the Association of Theatre Reviewers. Under the direction of Antonio Serrano (Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas), he performed Sabina Berman’s Moliere. He produced “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” in Mexico alongside his friends Jesús Ochoa, Rodrigo Murray achieving a box office success for which he received the Best Comedy Actor Award 2001-2002 from The Critics Association.

After intercalating his work in theater with Hollywood productions he started looking for new horizons. In 2007 Diego decides to debut as a director in the documentary about boxing champion Julio César Chávez (J.C.Chávez). The documentary premiered at 2007 Tribeca Film Festival and explores the life of legendary boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, whose rise from humble circumstances to thirty-seven world title fights mirrored the struggle of his people and allowed him to win the hearts of the world.

Chavez was created under the banner of Canana, the international film and television production company based in Mexico City that Luna founded with Bernal and Pablo Cruz. The company focuses on story-based projects of Latin American origin, with a worldwide market perspective.

After Criminal, Diego made several Mexican-based films in the following years like Solo Diós Sabe (a Mexico-Brazil co-production also starring Alice Braga), Un Mundo Maravilloso, Fundido a Negro and El Búfalo de la Noche. In the latter he met the actress Camila Sodi, which whom he would marry in the next year (2008).

Still on stage, John Malkovich directed Diego in “El Buen Canario” in 2008, in which he was also a producer. Following, we got a Charolastras reunion as Diego and Gael starred in Rudo y Cursi, directed by Carlos Cuarón (younger brother of the great Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón), receiving good reviews for his performance as Beto. In the same year he starred in the Harvey Milk biopic Milk as his emotionally unstable lover, Jack Lira.

Got behind the cameras as a director for the second time with Abel, his debut as a director of fiction. Abel is an encouraging story about a peculiar young man who returns home to take on the role of the man of the house, and soon his actions begin to have a positive impact on the family and its unity. The film was presented at Cannes Festival, among a large festivals circuit.

After two years away from the stage, in 2010 Luna starred alongside the Mexicans José María Yázpik, Ilse Salas and Héctor Ortega the Mexican version of the successful British staging Cock, which after its premiere at the Royal Court Theater in London 2009 was made Winner of an Olivier Prize, the highest award in English theater. The production was directed by Mexican writer Antonio Serrano.

In 2011, Luna played the male lead in Katy Perry’s music video for “The One That Got Away”. In June 2012, he began directing his first English-language film Cesar Chávez, a biopic about the life of the American labor leader, who founded the United Farm Workers. The film won the SXSW Film Festival Audience Award in 2014. During the same year, Luna and Bernal starred together for the fourth time, this time in the American Spanish-language film Casa de Mi Padre with Will Ferrell, for which he received a Imagen award as Best Supporting Actor. He also worked with Neill Blomkamp in the sci-fi Elysium.

With the co-operation of Gael Garcia Bernal, Pablo Cruz, and Elena Fortes, Diego Luna cofounded a non-profit organization named Ambulante. The main focus of Ambulante is to support and promote documentary movies based on social and cultural transformation. It also hosts annual festivals of Mexico. Ambulante was awarded the prestigious Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) Human Rights Award in 2011. Luna now sits on WOLA’s Board of Directors, and in January 2015 he narrated a WOLA video examining the barriers that Mexican migrant children fleeing violence in their home country face when seeking refuge in the United States.

In 2014 Diego starred in “Cada Dia nos Despedimos Mejor“, a monologue play which was presented for over 150 sessions. In 2015, he was set to play 18th century playboy Giacomo Casanova in a pilot from Amazon Studios. He also joined Mel Gibson on his comeback in Blood Father, that was presented at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival when Diego was part of the Un Certain Regard section jury. His latest directorial debut, Mr Pig, starring Danny Glover and Maya Rudolph, debuted at Sundance Festival in 2016.

After that, some blockbusters came on his way. Diego was cast as Cassian Andor at the Star Wars spinoff movie Rogue One – which was a huge success and introduced him to a very new audience. Later he was added to Flatliners remake cast alongiside Nina Dobrev and Ellen Page and was announced earlier in 2017 as Tony Montana in the remake of the classic Scarface.

Biography written by DiegoLuna.net, latest updated in April 24, 2017.

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